TY  - JOUR
A1  - Heidrich, Nadja
A1  - Bauriedl, Saskia
A1  - Barquist, Lars
A1  - Li, Lei
A1  - Schoen, Christoph
A1  - Vogel, Jörg
T1  - The primary transcriptome of Neisseria meningitidis and its interaction with the RNA chaperone Hfq
JF  - Nucleic Acids Research
N2  - Neisseria meningitidis is a human commensal that can also cause life-threatening meningitis and septicemia. Despite growing evidence for RNA-based regulation in meningococci, their transcriptome structure and output of regulatory small RNAs (sRNAs) are incompletely understood. Using dRNA-seq, we have mapped at single-nucleotide resolution the primary transcriptome of N. meningitidis strain 8013. Annotation of 1625 transcriptional start sites defines transcription units for most protein-coding genes but also reveals a paucity of classical σ70-type promoters, suggesting the existence of activators that compensate for the lack of −35 consensus sequences in N. meningitidis. The transcriptome maps also reveal 65 candidate sRNAs, a third of which were validated by northern blot analysis. Immunoprecipitation with the RNA chaperone Hfq drafts an unexpectedly large post-transcriptional regulatory network in this organism, comprising 23 sRNAs and hundreds of potential mRNA targets. Based on this data, using a newly developed gfp reporter system we validate an Hfq-dependent mRNA repression of the putative colonization factor PrpB by the two trans-acting sRNAs RcoF1/2. Our genome-wide RNA compendium will allow for a better understanding of meningococcal transcriptome organization and riboregulation with implications for colonization of the human nasopharynx.
KW  - RNA
KW  - Neisseria meningitidis
KW  - dRNA-seq
KW  - transcriptome
KW  - RNA chaperone Hfq
Y1  - 2017
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-170828
VL  - 45
IS  - 10
ER  -